There is not one single major + successful company that does not get beaten up by the press or individuals. Maybe it’s because deep down inside us as humans are evil and we hate to see someone or something doing something better than we can. But sometimes a company is trashed so much that you have to wonder how come they still stay in business (Wal-Mart and Microsoft are prime examples).
So why all this Microsoft hatred? Although Apple brought us the home computer, Microsoft was the one that made it actually do something else than making calculations and editing documents. And let’s not forget that they were the one who brought down the price from $2,000+ in the 80’s to $3-400 today. But no matter how much Microsoft has done every company keeps taking puck shots at them from big old Google all the way down to tiny Apple. The only major companies who seem to be on their side these days is of course HP, Toshiba, DELL and IBM, which is obvious seeing Microsoft was one the major reasons why these companies became the giants they are today (although IBM and Michael Dell will disagree with me).
Now don’t get me wrong. Microsoft (as with any major company) has its problems. But all this crap about Vista being the worst OS over (that title goes to Window’s ME) and this other stuff about them copying Apple (Vista has been in the works for over 7 years, way before Apple’s OS became so advanced) are just not flying because there is hardly any proof. But the major though on this matter is competition is good. Many said for years that Microsoft was unbeatable because they were the giant (Mozilla and Apple and Google proved that wrong). All three companies have taken different segments of the company and chipped away at it. But what people hardly realize is that this encourages competition which drives technology.
Take Mozilla for example. After Microsoft came out the triumphant winner in the browser wars back in the 90’s we were stuck with a lackluster internet browser that was good but not best. Than out of the ashes of Netscape rose Mozilla. While Mozilla has not posed any major competition to the giant yet Microsoft has taken notice and thus we have a more secure internet explorer and one that actually rivals and beats Firefox in many features.
Another example is Apple. Back in the late 90’s Apple was in so much trouble (after kicking Jobs off the job) that Microsoft was about to buy them out (literally), than Jobs came back and with a series of victories to his name including the iPod, iPhone, Final Cut Studios (but minus Apple TV) has set himself as one of the leading men of the digital revolution. How has this helped the consumer? Well it made Microsoft Windows just a bit better and the upcoming Window’s 7 (codenamed Vienna) will be Microsoft’s major step into an OS that is 10x more secure with better CPU and memory usage (to simplify the complicated).
But the major example has been Google. Started by two college students in their dorm, Google has moved from being just a tiny company with hardly any life to the biggest player in the advertisement industry. And with their step into the mobile platform as well as Internet based OS programs it has really put Microsoft on its toes.
So yes Microsoft has its problems but had it not been for the “bad” company you would not actually have a choice between MSN and Google, or Mac and Windows, or IE and Firefox and most importantly the choice to live a Microsoft free life. Although the latter is impossible because whether they like to admit it or not Apple, Mozilla and Google are only successful because they have someone who is better than them to compete with. Take Microsoft away and we’ll see where the technology revolution will be in the next 20 years.
